THIS BLOG SUPPORT UNIVERSAL DESIGN APPROACH THAT ASK DESIGNERS TO RETHINK SOME FUNDAMENTAL DESIGN CONCEPTS TO SERVE ALL KINDS OF USERS INSTEAD OF AN AVERAGE ONE. UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE DEMAND OF THE DAY, IT HAS ITS ROOTS IN THE CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS AND OTHER SOCIAL, LEGISLATIVE, ECONOMIC CONDITIONS, AMONGST OLDER ADULTS AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. THIS BLOG IS FOR ALL THOSE WHO WANT TO JOIN US IN OUR PURSUIT OF VISION THAT RESPECTS AND CELEBRATES INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Let every one without distinction be happy. Let every one be without any ailment. Let every one look like Arya, noble and righteous. Let there be no one to have any share of sorrow or grief.A Sanskrit shloka from a traditional Indian Inscription with a translation in English

.........."Welcome to the Blog".........

We need your inputs for this blog to build a body of knowledge that would help in strengthening the Universal Design concept in design education and design practice in the country. We would also like to share your related projects or experiences addressing different needs of the diverse population.

The following two diploma projects have been offered under the Jamsetji Tata Trust Chair for Universal Design at NID in 2009-10.
• Mr Peter Alwin : Car for the Indian Youth 2020
• Mr Mukhtiar Shaikh: Facilitating Learning Through Multi-sensory Experience

The process of short listing for next year has started, please contact Research and Publication at NID for further details OR contact us for suggestions.

Possibilities of introducing a Post Graduate Programme in Universal Design in collaboration with German Universities are explored at NID. Jamsetji Tata Chair and a few resource group members are involved in the process of the development of course with German Counterparts. Prof. Birgit Weller from University of Applied Sciences and Arts visited for the purpose and after a two day intense discussion with Mr Ravi Shankar (NID-B’lore campus), Ms Marie Kuprat , Ms Katharina Kraemer and Rachna Khare (that’s me), the concept proposal was presented to the director on 7th April 2010. Incorporating his suggestions, the final proposal is under preparation with finer details. The 2 year PG program is proposed to start in November 2011

Open electives is one of the most exciting design and exploration sprees held at NID every year. Held in all campuses of NID, it reinforces the multi-disciplinary learning model that NID propagates. The electives, as is norm, are being offered to students in the 2nd year of the Graduate Diploma Programme in Design (GDPD) and the 1st year of the Post Graduate Diploma Programme (PGDPD) at NID, where the registration is done online on a first come first serve basis. With this year theme of Open Elective–‘Responsibly Designed for India’ NID floated two open electives on Universal Design. Out of these two, one could be conducted at NID Bangalore campus. This was coordinated by Prof. Singhampalli Balram, a well known name in Design Education and Ron Mace award winner for Universal design. We are publishing information on both electives in this blog, proposal of open elective that was floated in NID heritage campus and photographs of the one conducted at NID-Bangalore Campus.

OPEN ELECTIVE ON UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR SOCIAL SUSTENANCE at Heritage Campus , Paldi, Ahmedabad

This elective was floated by Rachna Khare (that’s me) and Praveen Nahar with an aim to popularize design strategies for universal usability and enable design students to

• Understand the needs of population with diverse needs.

• Understand and analyze the impact of design on diverse ability groups.

This elective was conducted by Prof. Singhampalli Balram and Mr. Divya Darshan at NID, B’lore. This two-week elective started with introduction of Universal Design and exploratory field visits to local NGO’s working with people with functional limitations. The students after initial research identified the problem areas and developed their designs addressing these problem areas.

This site is managed by Rachna Khare, School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, an autonomous institution of Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India. She can also be approached at rachnakhare@spabhopal.ac.inand khare_rachna@hotmail.com